Enormous Update Coming to PlayStation Home

+ Posted by Locust_Star on May 06, 2009 // PlayStation Home Community Manager

Greetings, Home-people. Locust_Star here dropping in to give you the straight truth on what new goodies to expect in PlayStation Home this week. Simply put, this is one of the biggest content updates in the history of Home – and we think you’re going to dig what we have in store for you.

By popular demand, we have brought the Siren: Blood Curse space over from Japan (this space will appear in the European region at a later date). The basic overview is this: The Siren Home space is broken up into three basic zones. When you first enter the Siren space, you’re outside the Ward of Despair, in what looks like an old, rundown carnival space. The entrance to the Ward is just a few steps away. Upon entering it, you’ll find yourself in the mini-game’s lobby. Inside you’ll see video screens on the walls and places to sit and mingle with other players waiting their turn to enter the Ward of Despair mini game. When you’re ready to play, simply approach the receptionist and she’ll send you into the Ward (assuming that the background downloading is complete, which begins upon entry to the lobby scene and can take a few moments).

The Ward of Despair is the Saiga Hospital stage from this PSN downloadable game, recreated as a mini-game for Home, and playable with up to 5 players. Everyone is tasked with objectives that must be completed within the 5 minute time limit. If a Shibito, or zombie, catches you, it’s game over. Also, if you can’t complete the game before the time limit runs out, it’s game over for everyone. Successful completion of all objectives presents the player(s) with reward items in the form of some super creepy costumes.

Take time over the weekend to visit this space and earn these reward items, as we’ll be throwing a special event for those of you that manage to successfully complete the Ward of Despair mini-game. See, on Tuesday, May 12th, between the hours of 4:00pm and 7:00pm PT (6:00pm and 9:00am EST), we’ll be throwing the Siren: HorrorBowl bowling tournament. Users that show up for this bowling tournament outfitted with the Siren reward items will qualify for a random giveaway of the first Siren: Blood Curse bundle (episodes 1-4), which we’ll be passing out via PSN vouchers throughout the event.

In coordination with this space launch and event, the PlayStation Store will be offering a special sale on the full game and the episode bundles. The full game is now only $29.99, and each of the 3 episode bundles is only $10.99. So now’s the time to head over to the store and pick up the game if you haven’t already, or to snatch up those last remaining episodes to complete your collection. There’s even a demo available on the PS Store, so you can try it out before you buy it.
By now, you’re probably well aware of the Patapon 2 event/t-shirt launch also going on in Home on Thursday, May 7th. But I’m here to tell you that we have even more in terms of exclusive vids playing in-world for you this weekend. The fine folk behind the hilarious upcoming PSN multiplayer game Fat Princess have given us an exclusive “behind-the-scenes” developer diary video, delving into the inspiration behind this comic medieval battle royale, to air for one week in the Theater. This video will only be up for a limited time—one week only—before it makes its way to the PS Store later this month. So make sure you log in to Home and head over to the Theater to check it out before anyone else.

Moving away from this week’s events and into the realm of apartments, we are pleased to announce two new premium areas coming your way this Thursday. These two apartments are a new “Log Cabin”-themed area and the Living Room Stage Set.

The Living Room Stage Set will go on sale in the PlayStation Home Mall and will be loaded with interactive lights, cameras, backdrops and movie-related equipment to simulate a real-life studio production environment. The versatile lighting and camera systems allow for a wide range of desired angles, movements, transitions, cuts and lens set-ups that allow you to take control of the technical and artistic aspects. Combined with 12 props that come with the space to decorate the set, you’ll have access to the tools necessary to create your own film. Priced at $4.99, the Living Room Stage Set will be available at the Estates store in PlayStation Home Mall for your directorial debut.

On top of all this, we have a metric boatload of virtual items coming down the pike including Tekken costumes and figurines and 14 Killzone 2 shirts (plus a bunch of other gear in the Threads store). We also think you’ll pleased to find that the inFAMOUS pre-order and reward outfits will begin unlocking right on time.

There’s more stuff to do in Home than ever before, so come on in and give it all a spin. We’ll be looking for you.

You have to have a video capture device to make movies with the movie set environment? That’s pretty lame considering it’s intentionally designed for making films- and YouTube capture/upload is already implemented directly into games like Noby Noby Boy. Why not Home?

Hey I got an idea. How bout you guys start working on cross game chat and party system before you guys keep on making this useless crap? Aren’t you guys sick of being second when it comes to voice communications on consoles? God, who is running this organization? You wanna know why you guys only made a million dollar profit last year? Just take a guess. Hmmm?

sorry 4 million dollar profit. There is no edit option. Seriously though, you guys aren’t going anywhere with home. Most of the people on this earth dont even have enough time to sit through Home’s loading times let alone mess around all day playing around with it. Are you guys really that ignorant?

The complete lack of video capture and editing is very confusing. I’m guessing that everyone will have to go out and buy a Hauppauge HD PVR
model 1212 and a set of good component cables. Then they’ll have to get it hooked up to their PC for capture. Then they’ll have to come up with software to edit the raw footage.

*scratches head* Who thought omitting the most important part of the process was a good idea?

In order to really have real action in Home Studio would be to implement the sort of controls that LBP uses to move your avatar body and arms. The basic and pre-programmed avatar movements in home are really limiting and boring.

Wow, the stage set looks kind of intresting. Looks like all the people who are studying acting and directing plays may get their chance to do it on HOME. Nice work, Sony expect a rise in PS3 sales because you just give actors and directors a reason to buy a PS3.

Oh by the way I was at Kotaku, it looks like in Japan, the PS3 sold 288 Percent since last April. You can go to Kotaku.

wow, great update. i look forward to the siren space. but, i really dont understand what the stage set is all about. i dont know why it ever went into development. sure, i see the possiblities, but i would rather have more home spaces…..

This is interesting, but not exactly what I am looking for. So far the poker tables have been the biggest thing for me.

As I have said before I would to see spaces dedicated more toward activities/games like:

Full casino with multiple game types.
Midway arcade style games.
Family game night board games.

The popularity of poker should be a big sign that these kinds of activities are what people want as they allow socializing while still doing something. The biggest draw back for me is that I feel like I am standing at a mostly silent screen of my avatar talking in speech bubbles to another avatar and it gets boring fast.

Another idea I have is that instead of standing and waiting for a game and hoping to push X fast enough why not have a waiting list? At least then you know for sure if you can get in the next game.

Meh. I don’t see this as an enormous update at all. Then you talk about another one of those “events” which I really don’t care about because they always end up failing just like the last one (the Guitar Hero event).

I’ll just do the Xi stuff and log off as usual. I’m not interested in any of this added stuff.

“Simply put, this is one of the biggest content updates in the history of Home.”

LOL. Really?? This is the biggest update so far? Wow, doesn’t really do Home any favours.

So now we can pay 5 dollars to take videos of our avatars doing the Robot in front of a green screen. After we’ve recorded that exiting and ‘edge of your seat’ footage we can…. watch it again. Can we upload it to Youtube? No. Can we save it to our HDD? No.